IRWINDALE, Calif. — With a Texas flag flying overhead, David Tran founder of Huy Fong Foods, the maker of the famous spicy red sauce sriracha, escorted an entourage of Lone Star state officials around his massive southern California plant Monday. There were pleasantries and smiles, but whether there are any Texas hot sauce jobs in the offing was no clearer after the morning of mutual financial flirtation.

"I feel very happy; I have a lot of support," said Tran, an ethnic Chinese whose family was forced out of Vietnam decades ago and traveled to the U.S. on a ship called ...

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Comments (6)

There is more to this than meets the eye. Rumor has it that one of the major complainants is related to a member of the Irwindale City Council. And would like a nice fat buyout of his house, tyvm. I don't think they are going to move that factory, not least of which is the access to the crop. I would dearly like to see some aggies step to see if they can refute the claim in the story that they can produce ten times as many peppers in Cali. I think Tran is entertaining bids for expansion, not moving his operations.

Hey Texas Tribune - how come Denton Texas and Kevin Roden - Denton City Council, District 1 weren't mentioned in this article - especially since that is where the big push to move Sriracha started?! C'mon #sriracha2denton made the first move!

In this issue, there are two unrelated and separate barriers to overcome:

a ) finding a soil and climate combination which is as good or better than the California site where the peppers have been grown for years, and b ) analyzing the root causes of the occasionally smelly and stinging emissions and then mitigating those root causes.

Dallas has perhaps the world authority on growing epicurian vegetables. Tom Spice of 1410 Farm to Market produce is unsurpassed in creating environments for veggies to thrive. Despite what the big box retailers push in their full page ads, plants are not universally adaptable. A plant has to have a fit in soil, temperature, moisture, nutrients to survive much less thrive.

If you want to grow azelias in Dallas, be prepared to jump through hoops as a gardener. It is far better to limit your efforts to those plants adapted to our harsh elements.

Biogenesis Labs in Milwaukee has some scientific solutions for foul smells from operations. It is essential that the root cause of the odor be isolated.

We should not have this plant in Texas if it is going to be the functional equivalent of a hog farm polluting the air and ruining the life of all downwind. It is possible that those downwind from the Midlothian cement plants which have spewed toxic flumes for decades might prefer this stench to what they have endured under protest.